Privacy

So recently I... Did something quite drastic. Something I didn't do for years. That is... Private my social media! Haha. Okay this may be something ordinary and nothing drastic. But I've left my social media public probably since the beginning. Especially Instagram because I want other people to be able to see my photos and so on. Also since I am someone who enjoys photography.

However recently I realised that I have a lot of followers who are... Strangers heh. No shit Adhi. Okay most of my followers are (I think) bots, or they are programmed to follow me, or they follow me in hope that I will follow them back. You know like I realise when I like a post for a certain page, another page that is related to that page will follow me. I think it's bot or something. Or when I leave a comment on a post, some other people similar to that page will also follow me. And it's fine by me.

Also most of these "bots" followers don't really like appear on my stories, or they don't constantly like my posts. So they just pretty much follow me randomly. And thus I'm okay with it. But recently I realise that there are people who follow me and they view my stories, they like my posts and interact with me etc. I used to be okay with that, but now I kinda think twice. To have strangers see my life heh.

Okay the thing is I realised that as I grow older, I value my privacy more. This is very obvious with the way I post. I used to be that guy that post anything and everything. From food I eat, the road condition and etc. I think back then we all kinda do that on IG before stories appear haha. Now we can post them on our stories. But now I don't do that, I just post photos. And even on my stories I don't post my day-to-day happenings. Probably the most "private" thing I will post it my food lol.

The way I post is this: do I want this post to appear on my page forever? Then I will post it. If not I will go on my stories. Similar with Twitter, I don't usually post often now. Even now I'm scared to share my thoughts. Like the older I grow the more I prefer to keep things to myself. I still do share my thoughts etc but I become more selective I guess. I'm not sure why, the older I grow the more uneasy I become sharing things with other people. I guess sharing them to my friends is the last straw.

And yup, it is just recently that I come across the thought that there are strangers seeing my "life" and my "thoughts" that I think twice about my own actions and decisions. I used to be that friendly guy who would allow everyone to follow me. I used to be that open guy that interacts with everyone else. I used to be that guy that "wants to be seen". But now not anymore heh. I become more wary of being seen. I become more reserved and prefer less interaction (unless necessary). 

At the end of the day, sometimes I think to myself, what do I get from this (being open)? Now I even think that it's rather weird to have strangers follow and interact with me as if we know each other!

Also nowadays 90% of my social media usage is to follow my favourite artists/bands for new materials/tour dates and for news. Which also reminds me, now that I have privated my accounts, my favourite artists/bands can no longer see my tweets to them T_T It's okay though I still love you and I will support you always. I guess it's time to move on from the notice-me-senpai phase as I like to call it.

Well I'm just going to set another rule for people to follow me - we need to have a common ground. If we totally have none then maybe I'm not gonna allow you to follow me haha. I think it's fine that I just keep my posts to the usual circle of people who have been following me for years. I think it's the age, it's time. I'm no longer that friendly neighbourhood guy who wants to be seen heh.

Under The Weather

It's been a "great" start to the year of the rat with me falling sick the past two weeks urgh. I was having sore throat and flu last week, and this week I was having diarrhea. I'm still currently having diarrhea though, thankfully my stool is thicker now. Okay sorry if I write too much information.

Well during the CNY gathering a few of my family members were already having sore throat and cough. So I probably got it from them haha. Last Monday (the Monday after CNY) I was already having a slight sore throat. I'm  not sure if it was a sore throat or ulcer at the back of my tongue. But basically it hurt when I swallow food and sometimes when I was talking. And as I was getting better on the 3rd day, I woke up with a blocked nose. And flu. And yes. What rotten luck indeed haha.

And just as I got better on Sunday, I have no idea why but I got diarrhea since Tuesday! Okay Wednesday morning to be exact. It was quite bad that I went back and forth to the toilet for a few times on Wednesday dawn. I couldn't sleep cause of that -.- The diarrhea didn't stop till today so I was worried, decided to ask a doctor and was recommended to take antibiotics. I hope it stops tomorrow!

Not sure why I'm so sick these past two weeks hah. The diarrhea was most puzzling because I don't remember eating funny funny stuff. Also neither my mum or dad has it (we eat the same food) so yeah quite unsure why. I'm just annoyed at the fact that I have to go back to the toilet often. I even stayed at home today cause I'm worried "accidents" might happen if I go to the office haha.

Oh well tomorrow is the 15th of the first lunar month. Maybe I just need to pass this for everything to be back to normal hahaha. Alright just a short update from me. I might see you tomorrow! 

Missing Those Days

Whew guys it's been such a rough January for the world hasn't it? Floodings in Jakarta and Venice, the Australian Bushfire, Iran-US escalating tension and the recent Coronavirus outbreak. All of these rocking this nervous world left and right. Anyway, February is here. Let us all hope and pray that thing will get better as the year move along. And also prayers for everyone affected by the Coronavirus, the patients, and also the medical team who work tirelessly to contain the disease. 武汉加油!

Not sure if it's because of all of these events happening but I feel like January moved way too fast! Haha. Well that's kind of the case in each year. Every year moves faster and faster, and so does its individual months. We only have 29 days in this month, so it's gonna even be quicker!

Anyway it's Saturday now and somehow earlier, during the night, I just came across the thought of my old days back in Singapore. Just a simple reminiscing thought, about how I used to spend my Saturday. Well to be honest I really miss those weekends. Those weekends where I really have a weekend. Nowadays I don't have a weekend heh, cause there's always things to do on both days.

Even though I still do work most of the time during my weekends in Singapore, I usually set aside my Saturday as my chill day. Usually I'll just "force" myself not to do anything haha. Unless I have lots of work to do, or I have some revisions to do before exams/tests. And usually I'll do work on Saturday morning till afternoon. But I will always dedicate my evening time to chill. And man I miss this feeling!

Usually my Saturday will start off quite late (as compared to weekdays). I'll usually wake up at 10 AM ish. Usually I would have already bought breakfast to eat. If I'm feeling really lazy, I would start the day watching TV till the afternoon! I remember I always call Saturday the day where lunch is forgotten. Cause believe it or not, there were a few Saturdays where I skipped breakfasts and lunch (maybe snack a little) and watch TV/browse the internet till evening! And I would hate myself after that.

But anyway most of the time I would pull my ass out to eat haha. Either at Clementi, Holland or just a walk to Cold Storage to get something to munch. If I'm feeling lazy I will settle my dinner too. If not I will go out to get dinner again, or spend the evening out with my friends for food. Man, those were the good old days really haha. I miss that feeling of freedom, that feeling of doing whatever I want to do on every Saturday. Back in Singapore Saturday is always my favourite day of the week haha.

At night, if I didn't go out, I would spend it at home. Same, watching TV or surfing the net. Since 2010 onwards, just like these days, I spend it journaling! If I'm feeling lucky I would buy beer and drink it at home heh. The night would stretch till late, probably 2-3 AM. But usually I won't exceed the time, because I usually go to the temple the next day and have to wake up at 9 AM ish.

And yup. This is how my Saturday usually go. A completely different Saturday than the one I have now haha. I ain't complaining. I understand that life happens, life moves on. We all get busier heh. I do hope one day I can experience this all over again though. The freedom, the silly things, the quiet afternoons watching clouds pass by at the balcony, or through my window. The little things.

As MGMT song "Time To Pretend" says: 

"I miss the boredom, and the freedom and the time spent alone".

Happy Chinese New Year of The Rat!

Happy Chinese New Year of The Rat from the uncles and aunties of Baros United!

Hello hello, first of all just wanna wish you a Happy Chinese New Year of the rat! May you have a wonderful and prosperous year, 祝大家鼠新年快乐！希望大家身体健康，万事如意，心想事成!

Also may everyone has a 鼠-perb year ahead mwahaha.

It's been a rainy first day of the rat year. I had the usual family reunion yesterday with my aunts, uncle and cousins. And this time round, my nephews and nieces haha. Had the usual reunion lunch and then followed by some beer-session at night with my cousins and uncle. Did the CNY eve prayer and then the angpao-exchange haha. I just realised I'm no longer behind my cousin for receiving angpao, cause he's now married! So I'm next in line according to age. Oh dear.

Today was a pretty rainy day. Had some relatives and guests over to our house as usual. 

I think as I grow older, I just enjoy the simplicity of gatherings more. It's not the glitz and glams of festivities that I look forward to in each celebration. But the simplicity of just being around my family, the chatter of people talking, the discussion with my cousins and relatives. Because I think the presence of family is much more grandeur than the celebration itself. As I grow older that is.

Being an Asian who still upholds traditions has it perks too. To me Asian celebration and fesitivites are great times for family to gather together. If it's not for these celebrations, we wouldn't probably gather together eh? Unless there's special occasion like weddings, births of babies and... Funerals.

Alright I guess that's all from me for now. It's a Saturday night and I wanna chill a bit! See you soon.

Easy

It's the 18th day of the month and oh it feels good not to fret over the number of posts every month! Hahaha. Usually by this date I would freak over how little my number of posts is, but hey, I've decided not to limit myself anyway so yep. Anyway, today I'm gonna talk about my plans for this blog in this new year. And new era you can say. What I'm going to do, and not going to no longer do.

So yes as I mentioned I won't be "targeting" myself with a number of post per month/year. I was actually planning to at least blog 50 posts in a year but meh, I can't promise myself either so yep. I think I shouldn't promise something I may not fulfill. Also it goes against my idea of not targeting myself haha.

Secondly no more music of the month. I might do music of the year at the end of each year, but for not I'm going to do this monthly list in my journal. Cause yeah I don't think I wanna do on both!

Okay so that's for what I'm not going to continue doing. Here's what I'm gonna do!

As usual I will post some great music that I discovered in the month, or any interesting music/music video that I come across with. And not forgetting some photos that I took as well.

And I might try to write more thoughtful and planned-out posts. And yes, I might share it on my social media. Not sure if this is a good idea or not but I don't know why I have this feeling of wanting to share my stories more to other people. Who knows I'll be a famous blogger one day. Dream on Adhi.

I will still post about my travels/trips to places. And I'm thinking of writing more random posts? Like just a daily life kind of post. I think it's what I was planning to make my blog about - a place where I write about my memories, so that I can read them back again in the future. I was recently reading my old posts and it's quite fun! Writing about random things and events that happened heh.

Alright I guess that's all for now. Whew it feels good not to pressurise yourself mwahaha. Anyway I got myself another new journal too and I've been thinking about plans on how to fill it. I'm glad that I managed to fill my 2019 journal even though I thought I was going to have a difficult time finishing it but nope. Lets just continue the tradition in 2020 I guess. This is the 10th year that I'm journaling!

I hope 2020 has been starting well for you. Have a great week/remaining of January ahead guys :)

Terribly Short Weekend

Right, lets talk about my recent trip to Singapore! As the title says, and as what I previously blogged, it's such a terribly short trip haha, or at least it felt like a really short weekend! Anyway I landed at 12 PM this time. Went straight to the hotel and just chilled for a while (also catching some sleep) before heading out to meet Jes and Ade for dinner. Thankfully Jes was on her way from work too so we met in City Hall. So good to see her again. Or I mean, to see Mrs Foo again mwahaha.

We went to JEM for dinner and decided to eat at Din Tai Fung. Thanks to Jes' heads-up, we can actually veganise some items on the menu! Okay not applicable to all items. We started with the liang-cai (which is really good by the way) and the veggie dumplings. Ade came then and we ordered some food. I ordered the gan-ban mian and it was made vegan. They just use a different sauce I think.

Is it too early for yusheng? No

After that we decided to.... Lao Yu Sheng Hahaha. Ok lah it's been 7 years since I last lao yu sheng and it was quite a fun thing to do haha. Everyone was looking at us. Perhaps it's too early but who cares, Christmas is over! :P Thanks Ade and Jes for the dinner, it was great to meet with you both again! Feels like the old times when we would have dinner together. Then we went to Paris Baguette for dessert.

Here's to 14 years of friendship <3

It was so funny cause I asked the guy if they have vegan options and he blatantly said no haha (of course Adhi). So I just ordered their yuzu drink. Had a really lovely chat with the two of them and... Whew I'm just really flabbergasted by how fast time is flying. We're all adults now and we're talking about adult stuff! Work, life, relationships and so on. Sometimes I still see the two of them as my secondary school friends but well, we're all adults now really. Thanks Adeline and Jeslyn for the meetup! It's great to see both of you again. See you soon when I'm back alright.

Always a good time seeing both of them!

On Saturday I went to do some shopping first in the early afternoon to buy stuff for my parents and siblings. Dropped them at the hotel again and headed out to meet Jolene and Tacy! Met them at this vegan cafe that I've been wanting to try called Well Dressed Salad Bar and Cafe. Had a delicious tofu "egg" sandwich and also two slices of cakes that's really good. Did the usual catch up and it's always a good time seeing both of them! Hopefully Pao can join us the next time :)

After that I went for dinner with Vithya and Charmaine. Gosh it's been 2 years since I last see both of them! Felt so good to be reunited with them again. We had a delicious dinner at Daehwa Korean vegetarian restaurant in Fusionopolis. We had the army stew and it was delicious!! Wow first army stew in don't know how long haha. They have vegan luncheon meat and it tastes almost like the real thing *gasps*. We also have some side dishes like the usual kimchi pancake and tangsuyuk? It's supposed to be battered chicken but mushroom is used instead. Very very delicious dinner indeed.

We devoured that. Mmhmm

We then headed to Holland for drinks. And Wow Holland changed so much! The last time I went there was also 2 years ago when I met Vithya. We went to look around for places to drink and decided to go for The Pit. Same place where we drank the last time mwahaha. We went to 3 different bars actually! And ended up at Wala. Can't believe we actually drank from 7 PM to 1 AM. Probably the longest time I've actually drank haha. Nevertheless I had a great time with them. As usual talking about life and updating what's going on in our lives. I've known them for a decade now, crazy!

Lesson learned: take a photo before drinking hahaha

Kinda sad to think that the next time we'll meet again will probably be in either end of this year or next year again. But well I'm just proud on how far we've all come and thankful for this decade of friendship. Even though we're in two different countries! Especially to Vithya, someone I'm really thankful of crossing paths with. I'm just thankful to have a good friend like her whom I can openly talk to about a lot of things. It's sad that it's hard for both of us to meet and I'll always try to see her when she's in town. All the best for your studies and project in Australia. We will see each other again when you're back! <3

Reunited with the DBS bunch again!

Last but not least I met the DBS bunch for lunch on my last day! Wow it's been 7 years since we all met. The last time we met was during graduation hahaha. Except for Minli whom I met 2 years back too. So good to see everyone again and to see that you're all doing great! Okay especially to Zaki who literally went off the radar hahaha. Brought them to eat at Nom V Nom which is a vegan burger joint. I hope they enjoyed the food! Feels good to meet everyone again, especially when we haven't met for a very long time. Reminiscing the good old days and catching up with everyone.

Special shoutout to Syazwan, all the best for your big day ok :D

Yup that's all for my really short weekend in Singapore. After lunch I headed out to the airport (thanks Bobby for the lift to Funan!) and that's all for my trip. I actually enjoy this trip because it doesn't feel rushed. Nice pace to it haha. Okay maybe I used to meet as many people as I can in 3 days but now I pace them out. Also I just recently met some of them on September so I swapped my schedule here and there. I think I have to accept the fact that I'm getting old and I'm not as "agile" as I used to be 4-5 years ago haha. I used to meet some people for breakfast!

Thank you to everyone for the meet-up on this awesome albeit short weekend. What a great way to start the year indeed! I'm not sure when I'm gonna come back to Singapore again but as always, 

see you when I see you again, Singapore! :)

Back again

Hello, I just returned from a short trip to Singapore back on Sunday! I went there for a weekend from Friday and it truly felt like a really short trip haha. Had a wonderful time reuniting with some of my friends, some of whom I haven't met in 7 years! And also felt awesome to be reunited with Vithya again after two years. Decided to go back to SG for a trip and also to meet her while she's in town.

I just spent the past two days finishing work and doing some unpacking (I haven't finished unpacking!) and I will blog about my trip soon. I need to sort out the photos too heh.

Anyway this trip flew by quickly. Which really made me think about the fact that... If a year flew by like a breeze, I'm pretty sure 3 days flew by even more quickly too. So yeah. Tempus fugit!

I will see you soon about the trip alright.